5 things I’ve learned before 25

*Cue Happy Ratchet Birthday by Drake* It’s my birthday!! Quarter of a life today & it sounds insane to say! Where has this first quarter of my life gone?! A question I’ve been meditating on for the last few months, reflecting on all the resilience & wisdom I’ve cultivated thus far, & marinating in gratitude or all the abundance & happiness I know I’m about to experience in this next quarter of my life. Along the way here I’ve triumphed, struggled, laughed, cried, smiled, & everything in-between. Life has been one hell of a beautiful ride & I wanted to share my top 5 thing’s I’ve learned so far with you.

I could really go on, all day, for days, about my ‘process’ in life thus far. In my career, friendships, relationships, self love, & so much more. Every aspect of life comes with a process. Some are more challenging than others, while some are simply so easy as if you just had luck. While some processes can be filled with excitement, happiness, & joy, I personally feel that most times, the process can be painful, heart breaking, discouraging, & defeating. It can make you question e v e r y t h i n g. Am I really meant to do this? Am I meant to continue this friendship/relationship? Am I even qualified for the career I desire? Is it ever going to get better? Will I always feel this way? Why is this happening to me? Why is it so easy for that other person? Questions on questions we ask ourselves in the process of things that are taking a toll on us & taking longer than we thought. Our initial reaction? To fight the process or simply throw in the towel all together…but through all my experiences, trials, & successes, I’ve learned the most important key to getting through the process when nothing is making sense & the outlook seems bleak- is to simply lessen your grip on the process & just trust it! Trust that if you do your best, work hard at it, nurture it, & do all that you’re capable of doing on your part in the process, it will work everything out for your good, on the processes time. Not your time. The timing of the universe & God is unmatched. He makes no mistakes, His timing is divine as the universe, & is always right on time. Trust that he universe has your back through the process, that it see’s every opportunity you were cheated out of the betrayal you suffered, the tears you cried, & has even heard the million & one questions you have asked yourself through out the process of the different aspects of your life. Trust that the universe will repay you in double happiness for the hardships you’ve suffered & bring an abundance of clarity for the confusion you’ve undergone. Give yourself a break, it’s okay to not know how it all turns out, its okay to not have control over everything, its okay if it doesn’t make sense at the time- sometimes, we’re not ready to know, until the process of the universe chooses to reveal & reward us.

It seem’s as if this is the golden key to success, or at least not throwing in the towel on the way there. That’s what Gary Vee & a handful of other extremely successful business owners & entrepreneurs say. It’s about falling in love with the journey rather than the destination. It makes total sense, why be miserable when you know you have to keep working hard when you could just try to enjoy it as much as humanly possible! Try to make it fun, try to challenge yourself, try to embrace the difficult, stressful, & defeating times. Embrace them instead of fighting them. I mean, why fight the inevitable? You’re just over exhausting yourself in the process. Hard work is the main ingredient to success, so you might as well fall in love with the grind & have fun with it. When you fall in love with the grind & working hard, you expect the challenges, the stress, the detours, (sometimes even defeat) & you welcome them because you know in the bigger picture & long run, the grind is stretching you & sharpening you into exactly you need to be to handle & enjoy your future success. In reality, honestly, truly, if you were handed EVERYthing you truly wanted, RIGHT NOW, would you be prepared to handle it all, let alone maintain & secure it? Chances are, no. It’s the grind, the stretching, the sharpening, that teaches us & prepares us for all that we’re working for & want in life.

It’s crazy looking back at my old diaries & journals from high school & my younger years. Everything was literally so dramatic, it was a never-ending roller coaster of highs & lows, which looking back at it now, most of the lows were sooo not worth feeling ‘low’ over or down & out about! Somethings seemed & felt (at the time) so epicly life ending or changing, talk about teenage angst to the fullest! None the less, it’s still extremely entertaining & refreshing to look back at where I’ve been, how I felt in the moment, what my mentality was like at the time, & how I perceived certain times & situations in my younger life. Looking back at my old journals really put it in perspective for me that what sometimes feels so epicly crushing in the moment, may be times you don’t even recall, look back on, or are affected or phased by in your later future. They turn out to be somewhat insignificant. The ex boyfriend who drove me crazy, the boys who lied to me, the friends who turned on me & talked behind my back, the arguments I go into with my parents- it all turned out OKAY. More than okay actually. I highly recommend any & everyone to look back on things they’ve chronicled about their younger years or chronicle where you are at now in life, to look back on it in the future. It’s a great perspective shift! Who I was & what I did in high school, has no effect whatsoever on who I am & where I’m at in my life now! I look back on those times, laugh & also smile at the times I thought were so dramatically life changing, & feel a big sense of relief. The time’s I go through at this stage in my life, the good, & especially the bad, they will in turn pass in time too. I’m positive 10 years from now, I’ll look back on this point of time in my life & laugh & smile in the same way I am at my high school years. If there’s one thing no one can stop, it’s time. So take heart in knowing, this too shall pass, the good & the bad. So cherish the good while it lasts, & just hang on tight through the bad, because it WILL come & surly go, quicker than you think. Embrace it all.

Of course we’ve all heard the saying, “Chase your dreams” probably followed by a “follow your heart”, & while we should be doing both, I feel there’s one last piece of the motivational puzzle missing- chasing your fears. Comfort zones don’t breed change or success, comfort zones are ‘safe’ places, where you feel content, & literally comfortable! But life’s way too short to play it safe & sell your true capabilities short. There is so much to offer on the other side of your fears. Most times, the things we fear, are the things our intuition & spirit know we need to face head on, to become closer to the fullness of our destiny & who we are designed to be in this world. Not only does chasing facing your fears feel incredible afterwards, but it shows you what you’re truly capable of, & shifts your perspective completely about what you once let hold you back out of fear. So chase your dreams, follow your heart, chase your fears down too & conquer them. One less fear, makes you one step closer to being indestructible.

Last but certainly not least, think of time as your currency, not money! Value your time more than you value your money. At the end of the day, money comes and money goes, & although society has normalized us to think that ‘cash rules everything’, it doesn’t. Time is everything, it’s the one thing that truly rules all things & everyone, & once time has gone, it can not be given back. The only thing I despise more than wasted money is wasted time. Each year that I get older, each year that feels to fly by faster, I cherish my time over everything. I don’t want to miss a moment, regret a moment, or waste a moment. Though we sometimes feel that our journey in life is long, in the end, we all look back questioning how so much time has beseeched us. So instead of thinking only about financial investments in businesses, material things, or even people, shift your mind-set to view everything as a time investment that can not be returned, exchanged, or refunded. Make each day & each moment count, even the moments we often wish we could skip or fast forward from, those are still the moments we will all one day wish we could trade to have back. Be intentional with your time.

I hope you enjoyed these 5 quick snippets of reflection on the past 25 years of my life & the valuable (& sometimes hard) lessons I’ve learned along the way thus far. What are some of the most important life lessons you’ve learned so far?! I love learning wisdom through others experiences, share your stories & lessons with me in the comments below!